Mindulle, the Korean word for dandelion, brought heavy rain to central and southern parts of Taiwan, an island province in southeast China, since July 1.

The southwest airflow, which was believed the strongest ever hitting Taiwan, has brought torrential rain. Many places in counties such as Gaoxiong, Jiayi, Nantou and Taizhong have received more than 1,000 millimeters of rainfall.

Mindulle has uprooted trees, swollen rivers, flowed seawater backward and caused mud-rock flow. The heavy rains also made 59 sections of roads collapsed. Nearly 80,000 households suffered from power blackout for a while.

Agricultural sector was among the worst victims with estimated losses to exceed 1 billion yuan (Taiwan currency), according to reports from local media.

Transportation to Ali Shan, a famous scenic mountain in central Taiwan, were suspended because of the fallen rocks and woods.

Influence of the southwest airflow would continue for three to four days upon the island, according to local meteorological department.

The strong tropical storm has also landed Zhejiang Province and its neighboring Shanghai Municipality over the weekend.

Torrential rains and strong wind began sweeping the city at around 8 AM, stopping people from going out for weekend traveling and shopping. An advertising board fell in the storm and hurt one person.

According to the local meteorological station, Mindulle landed in Zhejiang at about 9:30 AM. Till 3 PM, Shanghai's downtown districts had been struck by the wind at a gale force of  7 to 9 and parts of the city had received rainfall exceeding 100 millimeters.

The local flood control department monitored the water level in the Suzhouhe section of the Huangpu River had reached 4.35 meters and would probably exceed the 4.55-meter alert line to rise to 4.75 meters Saturday night.

The whole city has been on high flood alert and the local TV station has been live broadcasting the tropical storm. It would continue approaching Shanghai and bring torrential rains till Saturday midnight and begin fading away Sunday morning, according to the weather forecast.

(Xinhua News Agency July 4, 2004)